For those of you who haven't read the prequel, I made a brief summary of character relationships to catch you up better ^^. It also gives some information I never explicitly stated in either story.

When Zitao learns to crawl, he takes to it very well. He’s barely put on the ground before he’s crawling away to explore things he couldn't before.

Luhan and Minseok developed a game they would play with Minseok’s baby brother in which they would place several toys around the room and see how fast he could crawl to each of them. They try to do the same with Zitao, but the toys easily distract him. Luhan grows bored and goes to Yixing to ask him for a box to put Zitao in.

“You’re not putting my baby in a box.” Yixing shakes his head and pushes his glasses up his nose. “Just give me a few minutes for me to feed him his bottle, and then he’ll probably go right to sleep.”

Luhan sighs and goes back to Minseok who’s playing peekaboo with Zitao. “I want to play football,” he laments.

“We can’t go outside until Yifan ge comes home.” Zitao squeals when Minseok peeks his face out from behind his hands. “And Zitao is fun to play with.

“Tao!” Zitao exclaims. He excites himself so much that he topples onto his back and rolls over to his side.

“…Yeah, so much fun.” He huffs and helps Zitao sit up. “Real babies are no fun. Tao cries a lot and Sehun stares at me all the time.”

“Because he likes you,” Minseok snickers.

Yixing comes in from the kitchen with a bottle and picks Zitao up. “Lunch is in the kitchen. After I put Zitao down for his nap, I need both of you to help me out and watch him while I do some work, alright?”

Minseok readily agrees, very confident of his role as a big brother. Luhan shrugs and drags Minseok into the guest room to play.

“Zitao~” Yixing kisses Zitao’s nose and the infant giggles and reaches out for his bà ba’s face. He allows Zitao to tug at the ends of his hair and squeeze his nose. Zitao knows not to go too far when playing with Yixing’s face. He knows that Yifan is the parent that will allow him to tear out a few strands of his hair without any scolding.

Yixing settles into an armchair in the living room with Zitao in his arms and starts to feed him. Though he’s old enough to hold his bottle by himself, he has a habit of getting distracted halfway through. Zitao squirms at first, trying to push the bottle away so he can sit up, but Yixing gently pushes him back down. There’s no question in his mind why Yifan cried while feeding his son. The dark circles around Zitao’s eyes made his gaze very intense as he stared up during feedings.

Today, he finishes his bottle quickly and tries to squirm away, knowing what’s coming next. “You have to nap, Zitao. Bà ba loves you, but bà ba needs a break.” Zitao struggles more and kicks his feet out. Finally, he gives up and starts to cry. Yixing sighs and stands up. “Why are you so fussy today?”

He finally gets Zitao to fall asleep after a lot of rocking and singing and lies him down in his playpen to nap. Yixing pokes his head into the guest room to remind the two boys to watch after the baby while he works on his music.

Luhan suggests to Minseok that they should put a whole bunch of toys and stuffed animals around Zitao to see what he does when he wakes up, but Minseok wisely pulls him away from the playpen.

“Well, we can at least play football.” Luhan searches through Zitao’s toys scattered around the living room and picks up a plush ball. “We can play with this! It’s soft so we won’t break anything.”

“Alright,” Minseok agrees. “But just for a little while so we can watch Tao.”

They kick the soft ball around for a few minutes, showing off the skills they’ve learned in their afterschool football program. Everything seems to be going well until Luhan kicks the ball too high, which Minseok has to head-. The ball goes sailing into Zitao’s playpen and hits him in the face.

Zitao makes a few sleepy sounds before he scrunches his face and starts to wail. Minseok, being a good older brother type, rushes to the playpen to try to calm Zitao down, while Luhan runs away to hide.

Yixing sighs loudly as he enters the room to hold Zitao. “What did you guys do now? I only asked for you to watch him.” Minseok is embarrassed but admits that they were playing football and accidentally hit Zitao with the ball. Yixing closes his eyes momentarily to keep himself calm; Zitao’s tears are driving him up the wall. “I told you to just wait about an hour until Yifan gets home to take you outside. Go sit quietly for a few minutes in the guest room. And find Luhan, I’m sure he’s hiding.”

Minseok does as he’s told and leaves to find his best friend. Yixing does his best to calm Zitao, but the infant seems to be inconsolable. Yixing’s at a complete lost after checking Zitao’s diaper and checking his body for any physical injuries, and Zitao is still crying.

He notices that Zitao’s forehead is warm, and after checking his temperature, he confirms that the baby has a slight fever. The fever doesn’t bother him too much though because the pediatrician told them that during teething, fevers would be common. So, he retrieves a teething ring from the freezer to give to Zitao, but the upset infant pushes the ring away and continues crying. Yixing is close to crying himself, but he doesn’t want to worry Minseok and Luhan. Instead, he searches for his phone and calls Baekhyun.

There’s a rustling after the phone rings and loud talking in the background. “Chanyeol, shut up, it’s Yixing. Hey, Yixing! What are you up to? Well, I hear Zitao so you’re probably not calling to say hi.”

Yixing’s confused as to why Chanyeol’s with Baekhyun, but he pushes the question down his list of importance. “Zitao has a fever and I don’t think it’s his gums because he doesn’t want his teething ring. What do I do?”

Baekhyun lets out a low chuckle. “You’re definitely a first time parent. Does Yifan know about the fever?”

“No, he’s not home yet. But I would appreciate some advice to help me stop freaking out before he gets home and freaks out more.” Zitao’s crying has downgraded to small sniffles, but it still breaks Yixing’s heart. “Should I take him to the hospital?”

“I seriously doubt it. He might just have a cold; look up his nose.”

Yixing sets Zitao down on a clean counter and looks up his nose as best as he can. “What am I looking a- oh, ew, mucus.”

“Sounds like a cold. Just use a bulb syringe to clean out his nose and go to the doctor to get low strength cold medicine.”

Yixing lets out a sigh of relief and picks Zitao up to go look for a bulb syringe in the nursery. “Thanks, Baek.”

“No probl- Chanyeol! Put my cards down before I stab you with a butter knife! Sorry about that, Xing.  We’re playing this card game that Kyungsoo showed us, and we’ve gotten really competitive with it.” Yixing hears a slap and a distant ‘ow’.

“Should I be concerned?”

Baekhyun laughs. “Nah. Chanyeol’s just trying to cheat because I’m winning and he’s a sore loser.”

“Please don’t murder him though. I need you to watch Zitao next weekend, and if I have to take him to my gig with me, I might just have a mental breakdown.”

“I understand; you need a good break. How about after Zitao’s all well, I’ll keep him for a day so you and Yifan ge can have some time together.”

“Seriously?” Yixing puts Zitao in his crib and searches for the bulb syringe. “I’m going crazy. Tao has this toy that plays music when you press a button, and he presses it about 100 times a day. And when I was trying to work, I unconsciously wrote the notes to that stupid song. How did you do this alone?”

“A lot of crying,” he admits. “And maybe some alcohol during nap time. I don’t recommend that though; I was young and dumb.”

“…Was?”

“Ha ha ha, say what you want, but this dumb person still answers all your phone calls. Go take care of precious handful.” With that, Baekhyun hangs up.

Over the course of the phone call, Zitao has cried himself back to sleep. While usually, this is the best thing Yixing could hope for, he has to wake him back up to the mucus out of his nose.

By the time Yifan gets home from work, both Zitao and Yixing are crying and Minseok and Luhan are still hiding out in the guest room. Naturally, Yifan’s concerned about his family, and when he asks Yixing what’s going on, all he can make out is ‘Tao’s sick’.

Yifan almost hits 3 cars as he drives to the emergency room. Though both Luhan and Minseok’s parents have told him that Zitao would be all right until they could make a trip to the doctor’s office, he panicked when Zitao sneezed in the middle of the night and nearly ran to the car with him. The emergency room nurses try their best not to laugh at the worried parents’ attire, colorful pajama pants, and they’re soon sent home with baby cold medicine.

After Zitao’s given the cold medicine, he’s almost immediately out like a light. He sleeps throughout the whole night and only wakes up the next morning when he sneezes again.

Yifan panics again and takes the next 3 days off work.

//

After Zitao’s over his small cold, Baekhyun upholds his promise and takes Zitao for a night. As this is first time both of them have been away from their child for more than a few hours, both of them drive over to Junmyeon’s and Baekhyun’s apartment to drop Zitao off.

“Don’t forget to make sure he’s completely asleep before you leave the room because he needs someone there to make him feel safe. And he likes his baby cereal with just a little bit of warm milk. And if you can’t calm him down, just call us, and we’re be right over.”

“Xing! We’ll be fine! I do have a five-year-old, in case you’ve forgotten.“ Kyungsoo walks in at this point and waves up at Yifan and Yixing.

“And why does your five-year-old have green hair?” Yifan inquires.

Baekhyun looks down at Kyungsoo and shrugs. “Chanyeol had to have hair chalk in his hair for one of his ads, and Kyungsoo wouldn’t stop whining until I used some in his hair. It washes out, and before you worry, it’s non-toxic.”

“Okay…” Yixing still seems unsure. Even though Zitao’s in Baekhyun’s arms, Yixing’s hand is still resting on his back. “But if you need anything at all, call us.”

“Leeeeave.” Baekhyun has to literally push Yifan and Yixing out of his apartment before they end up spending the night over too. The corners of Zitao’s mouth turn down around his pacifier when he sees that his parents are gone, but when his eyes land on Kyungsoo he stares curiously at him. “Tao, this is my son, Kyungsoo. He’ll be your best friend ever, I promise.” Zitao squirms, indicating that he wants to be put down and Baekhyun complies and nudges Kyungsoo toward him. Kyungsoo fidgets a little bit, nervous because he’s never interacted with a baby, but he squats down in front of Zitao to poke him. Zitao giggles and reaches up to touch Kyungsoo’s green hair.

Meanwhile, Yixing’s absolutely devastated that Zitao didn’t cry for him at all. He stands outside the apartment for a solid 10 minutes before Yifan pulls him away, reminding him that they have dinner reservations. Yixing’s not really up for dinner though, and he pokes at his food sadly and wonders out loud if Zitao has eaten yet.

“He’ll be just fine, Xing. Baekhyun knows what he’s doing, and Kyungsoo’s there to play with him.”

“But Zitao’s our baby, and Baekhyun hasn’t had an infant in years. What if he doesn’t make the baby cereal right? Maybe we should go get him and take him home.”

Yifan sighs and puts his fork down. “You left a very detailed list on how Zitao likes his food, so he’ll be fine. And we need this night away from him. He’s been driving us crazy lately.”

“Okay… But I’m picking him up first thing tomorrow morning.” But Yixing looks so miserable at the thought of being away from his child so long that Yifan caves in and drives back to Baekhyun’s apartment after they finish dinner.

Junmyeon answers the door, looking very confused at seeing them. “Is there something wrong…?”

Yifan shakes his head. “Yixing just wanted to make sure Zitao is okay.” Yifan uses his fiancé as an excuse, but really he’s just as anxious to check up on their son.

“Okay… he and Kyungsoo are actually asleep.” He leads them into the apartment and to Kyungsoo’s cracked open door. When the peek inside, they see Zitao asleep on his back, pacifier in his mouth, while Kyungsoo is curled up on his side next to him.

“Has he cried at all?” Yifan asks.

“Not really. He’s been following Kyungsoo around and watching him. He cried a little when Kyungsoo had to take a bath, but he’s been fine since then.”

Not wanting to wake him up, Yifan and Yixing leave quietly and go back home. Yixing doesn’t bother taking off their shoes when they get in and just goes straight to the bedroom to lie on their bed. “He doesn’t need me any more,” he mumbles into his pillow.

Yifan lies next to him and pulls him close. “Of course he does. It’s good for him to be away from us for some time to be social, but you know he’s always the happiest with you.”

“But he’s going to learn how to walk, and then walk away from me forever.”

“I doubt it?” Yifan states. “He’s not even a year old.”

“I guess so,” Yixing sniffs. “But I didn’t think he would grow up this fast.”

“He’s not growing up that fast. He’s going need you for a long time, okay?”

Yixing nods and shifts to face Yifan. “You’re right; I’m overreacting. But I still want to get him first thing in the morning.”

//

The next morning, Yixing arrives at Baekhyun’s apartment a little before 8 o’ clock to pick up Zitao. Baekhyun promptly opens the door, already knowing that Yixing would probably be back early after his impromptu visit the night before.

“Where you able to sleep?” Baekhyun teases as he lets Yixing in.

“Yeah, of course.” But really, he spent the night tossing and turning, which kept Yifan up too.

“Well, Zitao’s in the living room with Kyungsoo. Let me go get his stuff from the bedroom.” Baekhyun gestures towards the living room and goes to retrieve the diaper bag.

Yixing stops dead in his tracks when he steps in the living room. Kyungsoo’s sitting on the couch in his pajamas watching a kids show, and Zitao is holding onto the couch and standing.

“You okay, Xing?” Baekhyun asks when he returns.

“Zitao… he’s standing.”

Baekhyun looks over at the two boys and shrugs. “Yeah… is that new? Kyungsoo was playing around with him yesterday and pulled him to his feet. He fell a few times but he can stay upright as long as he’s holding onto something.” He turns back to look at Yixing. “…Are you crying?.”

Yixing sniffs and rubs at his eyes. “He doesn’t need me!” he wails.

Yeeeeah, Yixing's probably gonna cry at all of Zitao's milestones.

"Zitao getting sick" prompt from LuhansOrange! Leave more prompts for me to include in later chapters ^^